On the 23ed of February, Russian fascist dictator Putin launched his long-expected invasion of Ukraine. As Ukraine's military and guerilla groups mounted resistance to the invasion, protesters gathered from Moscow to Washington DC to oppose this assault. In DC, Ukrainians gathered hundreds-strong in front of the White House, demanding sanctions including the expulsion of Russia from the SWIFT global banking system.

The expulsion of Russia from SWIFT would isolate their entire banking system from the global economy and make the sale of any Russian oil and gas nearly impossible except on the black market. It would plunge Russia
s economy into chaos. With antiwar protesters in Russia already building up faster than Putin's thugs can arrest them, such economic chaos could destablize Putin's regime, possibly ending in his overthrow. The price of this would be an immediate energy crisis in Europe, which would have to reduce their consumption of natural gas by about 1/3.

Notably, nobody at the White House protest (at least in the first 40 minutes) spoke in favor of sending US or NATO troops into Ukraine to fight Putin's invaders directly. Probably it is widely understood that this would carry a severe risk of escalation to nuclear war. That risk exists anyway but would be far worse with troops from two or more nuclear powers fighting on opposite sides of the same battlefield. Whoever loses gets the option to escalate.

Protests against Putin's meddling in the affairs of other countries used to be quite common at the White House. The country in question was the United States itself while Donald Trump was in office. It was widely suspected that Putin ordered Russian agencies to interfere in the 2016 US election on Trump's behalf, and the two men were known to be friends. In fact, some have expressed surprise that Putin did not invade Ukraine while Donald Trump was still in office instead of waiting until he was out. In fact, Trump has praised Putin even as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine. At a Wed Feb 23 fundraiser, he said "“I mean, he’s taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart." That's as ugly as it gets.

The "energy" aspects of this war and associated sanctions are going to have ugly side effects globally. While Russia has become infamous for leaky gas wells contributing to climate catastrophe, gas fracking in the US has the same exact problem. The removal of Russian oil and gas from the market opens new opportunities for oil and gas barons in the US and elsewhere. They will use the war as an opportunity to demand more land, more eminent domain, more pipelines, the works. Still worse, these corporate thugs will attempt to use the war to justify new legal punishments for those resisting invasion of their lands here in the US by frackers and pipeline companies. Those who are doing in the rural US what Ukrainian guerillas are doing abroad(fighting for their land) are not at risk of being accused by wealthy billionaires of instead fighting for Putin.

On the other hand, the fossil fuel crisis created by the sanctions imposed on Russia and/or by accidental bomb or artillery hists on pipelines etc may place renewable energy at a competitive advantage over suddenly more expensive oil and gas.

Speaking of direct action, in Ukraine itself armed opposition to the invasion runs from one end of the spectrum to the other. Putin (though a fascist himself) uses the existance of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion as one of his excuses for war. The author of this story did not spot any instances of Azov's Nazi-derived "wolfsangel" flag at the White House protest. Then there are the "mainstream" resistance groups rapidly arming in Ukraine as well as Ukraine's conventional army. Finally, on the progressive end of the spectrum, anarchists in Ukraine are following the example of Rojava and organizing their own fighting units to resist Putin's troops or anyone else who threatens their communities.

In Russia there have already been nearly 2,000 arrests as protesters have thrown caution to the winds and marched in growing numbers in Moscow, St Petersburg, and dozens of other cities. One protest in Moscow drew over 1,000 protester in spite of the known risk of arrest and even torture in Putin's prisons. Protests in other countries such as the one in DC here in the US let Russian protesters know they do not stand alone. They also let Putin know the whole world is watching.

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